As years go by, universities in the US change their method of selection for students so it becomes the most egalitarian as possible, and great changes have been made during this pandemic. Universities from all over the US made one major change in their application process, that being that they are now test optional or free, meaning they will now longer demand SAT scores and will base themselves off your transcript and other application requirements.
Covid-19 had brought many changes to the world, and one of them were many universities becoming test optional either temporarily or permanently. For the fall of 2022 it is estimated that over 1,700 universities will be test optional in the US. The ivy league colleges are also included in these statistics, however this will be temporary. Many of these institutions however are now opting for this choice permanently, since they want their selection process to be as fair as possible, and the SAT, the test which many required before, is a paid test, making it an unfair requirement since many couldn’t afford it.
For many this was a positive change, both in the financial side but also in the emotional side. The SAT test has a price US$ 68, which is a lot of money, and makes a difference in many people’s lives. However many people saw this as a positive change as well due to them not being able to show their full potential through tests, and since this is no longer a requirement they have a greater chance of being accepted into a better university. While this change did happen in the USA in Brazil it did not, with the vestibular still happening and testing still happening.
Adding on to the test optional change studies have proven that there is no strong correlation between test scores and not graduating as mentioned by the Chief Academic Officer Rachel Boon said at the regents’ meeting “Our findings continued to indicate that the tests do have some value on predicting first year GPA [grade point average], but ultimately had a limited relationship to the likelihood of graduation.”
In conclusion Universities had to adopt measures during the pandemic in order to follow along with the applications, and the solution found was to make the SAT an optional part of the application process. Due to this many of these colleges adopted this measure and some opted to apply this change permanently. Many people saw this as a positive change both financially and emotionally.
Sources:
https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/01/24/will-test-optional-become-new-normal-admissions
https://www.fairtest.org/record-1775-schools-are-testoptional-fall-2022
https://www.sparkadmissions.com/blog/what-colleges-and-universities-will-be-test-optional-in-2021-2022/
https://www.elca.org/our-work/leadership/colleges-and-universities
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